Community Ceramics Contribution Project
November 2024 Update:
Happy upcoming holidays! We’re happy to let you know that the Potters’ studio's Community Ceramics Collaboration Campaign is operational! The first donations of ceramics will be just in time for the upcoming holiday season.
We will begin our program in partnership with the Health Equity program of CHAA (Community Health for Asian Americans), a non-profit focused particularly on immigrant health. In this November and December, we will be distributing ceramics to recent Afghan refugees who came to this country with very little. They are particularly in need of items for their daily use— the dishes and cups that brighten their daily meals in the way that only beautiful tactile ceramics can.
We will be donating at two events, one on November 22 and again on December 18 so please consider sharing your work. All donations should be food-safe and of good quality. This is a good time to donate work that may not have come out exactly as you wanted! We have already received some wonderful contributions. Please bring your donations to the admin staff can show you where they are being stored upstairs. Or contact Larry Cohen (Larry@LarryCohen.org) or Beth Rockmill (BRockmill@gmail.com) and we can store them.
We also welcome thoughts and participation to help the campaign flourish long term. Please contact Larry or Beth if you would like to participate in organizing new partnerships, distribution help, or any ideas.
Stay tuned for updates on this exciting community endeavor. THANK YOU!
what is it?
We are excited to announce a new Potters’ Studio community initiative with the working title, Community Ceramics Contribution Project. The goal of this project is to contribute beautiful and useful ceramics to people who might be unable to afford them. These gifts would serve as a reminder that in a difficult period of life, there are people that care.
For example:
A young adult facing the end of their eligibility for foster care and moving to their first apartment,
A refugee family who came to this country with practically none of their belongings.
Other adults getting “resettled” after trauma or illness
Our plan is to regularly donate ceramics to a number of local groups (some already identified) that will distribute them among their constituents. But in order to get started, we need your help!
Ways you might help:
Planning and oversight:
Join our committee and help organize the donor groups and the paths of donations.
Suggest a better name.
Donation of ceramics:
Donate your finished functional, first-quality (not seconds with functional imperfections) ceramic pieces
Volunteer to make pieces or to help glaze them (e.g., donated bisqueware).
As teachers, you might turn over your demo pieces.
You might organize a production/contribution effort or hold a special event for producing contributed pieces.
People who sell their work might offer an incentive to their customers – that they will contribute one donated piece to the Community Ceramics Contribution Project for each purchased piece from their own sales channels (PS Gallery, Etsy, their own website store, etc.).
You might contribute directly to help defray some of the firing and clay costs.
This is a community initiative. Through this, we can all share in the advancing of our mission as a non-profit organization. It builds on other efforts of the studio and our community, including:
Environmental sustainability efforts focused on saving water and reducing clay waste.
Removing economic barriers to ceramics and sharing ceramic art with all.
We hope you share our enthusiasm. We welcome your participation! Complete the form below and let us know of your support, interest and/or ideas – we can hold further discussion soon.
Beth Rockmill and Larry Cohen, Board Members